Shallow trench isolation regions made from crystalline oxides

ABSTRACT

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device that involves etching a trench in a semiconductor substrate, epitaxially growing a crystalline structure in the trench and forming semiconductor structures on either side of the crystalline structure. Crystalline oxides may include rare earth oxides, aluminum oxides or Perovskites.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to manufacturing semiconductor devices,particularly with methods of forming shallow trench isolation regions.

Shallow trench isolation may be common practice in, for example,semiconductor devices below 250 nm. Shallow trench isolation removes aportion of a semiconductor substrate and replaces it with an insulatorsuch as, for example, Silicon Oxide, Silicon Nitride and SiliconOxynitride. The structure that results may, among other things, preventcurrent leakage between devices on a chip.

BRIEF SUMMARY

An embodiment of the invention may include a method of forming asemiconductor device. The method involves etching a trench into asemiconductor substrate. The entire volume of the trench is then filledwith a crystalline oxide to from an epitaxial oxide structure. Followingformation of the epitaxial oxide structure, a first semiconductorstructure and a second semiconductor structure are formed on oppositesides of the epitaxial oxide structure.

An additional embodiment of the invention may include a semiconductordevice. The semiconductor device may include a first semiconductorstructure and a second semiconductor structure on a semiconductorsubstrate. The semiconductor device may contain a crystalline oxidelayer located between the first semiconductor structure and the secondsemiconductor structure. The crystalline oxide layer may have a topsurface substantially planar to the top surface of the semiconductorsubstrate, and extend below the surface of the semiconductor substrate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view depicting a substrate and a nitridelayer, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view depicting a formation of a trench,according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view depicting forming a crystalline oxidelayer, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view depicting removing the nitride layer,according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view depicting forming semiconductorstructures, according to an exemplary embodiment.

Elements of the figures are not necessarily to scale and are notintended to portray specific parameters of the invention. For clarityand ease of illustration, dimensions of elements may be exaggerated. Thedetailed description should be consulted for accurate dimensions. Thedrawings are intended to depict only typical embodiments of theinvention, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scopeof the invention. In the drawings, like numbering represents likeelements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments now will be described more fully herein withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodimentsare shown. This disclosure may, however, be embodied in many differentforms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplaryembodiments set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments areprovided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and willfully convey the scope of this disclosure to those skilled in the art.In the description, details of well-known features and techniques may beomitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments.

For purposes of the description hereinafter, terms such as “upper”,“lower”, “right”, “left”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, andderivatives thereof shall relate to the disclosed structures andmethods, as oriented in the drawing figures. Terms such as “above”,“overlying”, “atop”, “on top”, “positioned on” or “positioned atop” meanthat a first element, such as a first structure, is present on a secondelement, such as a second structure, wherein intervening elements, suchas an interface structure may be present between the first element andthe second element. The term “direct contact” means that a firstelement, such as a first structure, and a second element, such as asecond structure, are connected without any intermediary conducting,insulating or semiconductor layers at the interface of the two elements.

In the interest of not obscuring the presentation of embodiments of thepresent invention, in the following detailed description, someprocessing steps or operations that are known in the art may have beencombined together for presentation and for illustration purposes and insome instances may have not been described in detail. In otherinstances, some processing steps or operations that are known in the artmay not be described at all. It should be understood that the followingdescription is rather focused on the distinctive features or elements ofvarious embodiments of the present invention.

During the formation of various semiconductor structures, addition andremoval of many material layers may occur to form the desired structure.Some removal processes may include a chemical wetstripping that uses areactive material to selectively remove a layer, or a portion of alayer, to create the desired structure. However, wetstripping may alsoremove or damage more permanent structures, such as isolation trenchesthat are located between the semiconductor structures on a device. Itmay be advantageous to form the isolation structures with materials thatare more resistant to wet etching, such as crystalline rare earth oxidesand Perovskites, instead of the silicon oxide, silicon nitride orsilicon oxynitride materials that have traditionally been used.

Referring to FIG. 1, a substrate 100 with a nitride layer 110 may beprovided. The substrate 100 may be made from any of several knownsemiconductor materials such as, for example, silicon, germanium,silicon-germanium alloy, carbon-doped silicon, carbon-dopedsilicon-germanium alloy, and compound (e.g. III-V and II-VI)semiconductor materials. Non-limiting examples of compound semiconductormaterials include gallium arsenide, indium arsenide, and indiumphosphide. In some embodiments, the substrate 100 may be a bulksemiconductor substrate. In such embodiments, the substrate 100 may beapproximately, but is not limited to, several hundred microns thick. Forexample, the substrate 100 may have a thickness ranging fromapproximately 0.5 mm to approximately 1.5 mm. In other embodiments thesubstrate 100 may be a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, wherea buried insulator layer (not shown) separates a base substrate (notshown) from a top semiconductor layer.

Still referring to FIG. 1, the nitride layer 110 may be deposited abovethe substrate 100. The nitride layer 110 is intended to protect thesubstrate 100 during etching and the subsequent epitaxial growth. Thenitride layer 110 may be made from any of several known nitrides oroxides such as, for example, silicon nitride. In such embodiments, thenitride layer 110 may have any thickness capable of protecting thesubstrate 100, for example thickness ranging from, but not limited to,approximately 10 nm to approximately 400 nm. Deposition of the nitridelayer 110 may be performed by any suitable deposition technique known inthe art, including atomic layer deposition (ALD), chemical vapordeposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), molecular beamdeposition (MBD), pulsed laser deposition (PLD), or liquid source mistedchemical deposition (LSMCD).

In some embodiments, an oxide layer (not shown) may be provided abovethe nitride layer. The oxide layer may be made from any of several knownoxides or oxynitrides derived from a silicon. For example, the oxidelayer may be made of silicon oxide or silicon oxynitride. The oxidelayer may have a thickness, for example, ranging from approximately 1 nmto approximately 1000 nm, preferably ranging from approximately 10 nm toapproximately 250 nm. However, greater and lesser thicknesses of theoxide layer are explicitly contemplated.

Referring to FIG. 2, a trench 115 may be formed in the substrate 100 andthe nitride layer 110 through lithographic patterning and etching of thematerial. The trench 115 may be created with a thickness and depth toreduce current leakage across the trench 115 once it has been filledwith a dielectric material. The trench 115 may be formed using aphotolithography process followed by an anisotropic etching process suchas reactive ion etching (RIE) or plasma etching.

Referring to FIG. 3, a crystalline oxide layer 120 may be epitaxiallygrown in the trench 115. After formation of the crystalline oxide layer120, the lattice of the crystalline oxide layer 120 corresponds to thelattice exhibited by the material of the substrate 100. In an exemplaryembodiment, epitaxial growth may be halted once the crystalline oxidelayer 120 substantially fills the trench 115, so that the surface ofcrystalline oxide layer 120 is substantially level with the surface ofthe substrate 100 (FIG. 2). In other exemplary embodiments (not shown),the epitaxial oxide layer may be deposited in the trench 115, and abovenitride layer 110, and recessed through chemical mechanicalplanarization (CMP).

Exemplary epitaxial oxide materials grown in the trench 115 include rareearth oxides (e.g., cerium oxide (CeO₂), lanthanum oxide (La₂O₃),yttrium oxide (Y₂O₃), gadolinium oxide (Gd₂O₃), europium oxide (Eu₂O₃),and terbium oxide (Tb₂O₃)). In some embodiments, the crystalline oxidelayer 120 includes combinations of rare earth oxides (e.g., a materialsuch as ABO₃, where ‘A’ and ‘B’ may be any rare earth metal (e.g.,lanthanum scandium oxide (LaScO₃)). In yet another embodiment, thecrystalline oxide layer 120 may include aluminum oxide Al₂0₃ or aluminumoxide compounds (e.g., lanthanum aluminum LaAlO₃). In yet otherembodiments, the crystalline oxide layer 120 includes Perovskites (e.g.strontium titanate (SrTiO₃) or barium titanate (BaTiO₃)) which may bedeposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). It is understood that thedescriptions of crystalline oxide layers provided herein are forillustrative purposes, and that other crystalline oxide layers or layercombinations may be used in accordance with other embodiments.

Examples of various epitaxial growth process apparatuses that may besuitable for use in forming the crystalline oxide layer 120 may include,for example, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), rapid thermal chemical vapordeposition (RTCVD), low-energy plasma deposition (LEPD), ultra-highvacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHVCVD), and atmospheric pressurechemical vapor deposition (APCVD).

The terms “epitaxial growth and/or deposition” and “epitaxially formedand/or grown” mean the growth of a semiconductor material on adeposition surface of a semiconductor material, in which thesemiconductor material being grown has the same crystallinecharacteristics as the semiconductor material of the deposition surface.In an epitaxial deposition process, the chemical reactants provided bythe source gases are controlled and the system parameters are set sothat the depositing atoms arrive at the deposition surface of thesemiconductor substrate with sufficient energy to move around on thesurface and orient themselves to the crystal arrangement of the atoms ofthe deposition surface. Therefore, an epitaxial semiconductor materialhas the same crystalline characteristics as the deposition surface onwhich it is formed. For example, an epitaxial semiconductor materialdeposited on a {100} crystal surface will take on a {100} orientation.In some embodiments, epitaxial growth and/or deposition processes areselective to forming on semiconductor surface, and do not depositmaterial on dielectric surfaces, such as silicon dioxide or siliconnitride surfaces.

Examples of various epitaxial growth processes or apparatuses that aresuitable for use in forming the epitaxial oxide of the presentapplication include, e.g., rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition(RTCVD), low-energy plasma deposition (LEPD), ultra-high vacuum chemicalvapor deposition (UHVCVD), atmospheric pressure chemical vapordeposition (APCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

Referring to FIG. 4, removal of the nitride layer 110 may be performed.Removal of the nitride layer may be accomplished through any combinationof known techniques, such as, for example, RIE, wet stripping and plasmaetching.

Referring to FIG. 5, various semiconductor structures, S₁ and S₂, may beformed on the substrate 100. The semiconductor structures are placed onopposite sides of the crystalline oxide layer 120, which may reducecurrent leakage from one structure to another. Formation of thesemiconductor structures, S₁ and S₂, may be done through any number oftechniques, such as deposition and etching of additional layers, removalof portions of the substrate 100 followed by deposition of differentmaterials, or any other methods known in the art. Such techniques mayresult in the formation of, for example, Field Effect Transistors (FET),photodetectors, resistors, capacitors, etc.

Following the formation of the semiconductor structures, S₁ and S₂, thesemiconductor device may have identical, or different, devices locatedon the substrate 100. These devices may be separated by a trench in thesubstrate 100 containing the crystalline oxide layer 120 made of a rareearth oxide or perovskite material. The surface of the crystalline oxidelayer 120 may be substantially planar with the surface of the substrate100, and extends to a depth below the surface necessary to adequatelyreduce current leakage of the semiconductor structure S₁ to thesemiconductor structure S₂. The crystalline oxide layer 120 isencompassed by substrate 100, except for the surface of the crystallineoxide layer 120, which remains exposed to the atmosphere during, andjust after, the formation of the semiconductor structures, S₁ and S₂.

The use of a crystalline oxide insulator in shallow trench isolation(STI) regions prior to the formation of the semiconductor structures maycreate a structure that is more capable than previous insulatormaterials (e.g. silicon oxides, silicon nitrides, and siliconoxynitrides) to withstand the chemical etching steps that are involvedin the formation of semiconductors. For example, a typical step ofcreating a desired pattern of a material on a substrate may includedeposition of a material, depositing a silicon oxide or silicon nitridematerial above the material to mask the material or act as a surface fora photolithographic layer to adhere to, using photolithography to etchthe desired pattern, and then removal of any remaining silicon oxide orsilicon nitride material. During the removal or etching process,chemical etchants, such as Hydrofluoric acid or buffered hydrofluoricacid, are used to remove silicon oxides which may create partial removalof the material, roughness of the surface of the STI region or an uneventopography of an STI region made from the previous insulator materials.Also epitaxial preclean and silicide preclean, which are tailored toremove residual or native silicon oxide before deposition of epitaxy orcontact metal may inadvertently effect or damage the STI. Those cleansare done by HF or by plasma assisted chemical dry etch. However,chemical etchants, such as Hydrofluoric acid, may not react as readilywith epitaxial oxides as they do with the previous insulator materials,and therefore the use of crystalline oxides in STI regions may create astructure that is less susceptible to damage than STI regions made withthe previous insulator materials.

By replacing traditional oxide materials used in STI formation withepitaxial oxides, unwanted etching of the STI region may be avoided.This may lead to devices where isolation is increased, final deviceswith a flatter topography and reduction of unwanted epitaxial growth atthe edges of the STI region.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiment, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableother of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein. It is therefore intended that the present inventionnot be limited to the exact forms and details described and illustratedbut fall within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of forming a semiconductor structure,the method comprising: etching a trench into a semiconductor substrate;forming a crystalline oxide layer in the trench, wherein the crystallineoxide fills an entire volume of the trench to form an epitaxial oxidestructure, wherein said epitaxial oxide structure does not extend abovea topmost planar surface of said semiconductor substrate; and forming afirst semiconductor structure and a second semiconductor structure onthe semiconductor substrate, wherein the epitaxial oxide structure islocated between the first semiconductor structure and the secondsemiconductor structure, and wherein the epitaxial oxide structuresubstantially electrically isolates the first and the secondsemiconductor structure.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thecrystalline oxide comprises rare earth oxides.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the rare earth oxide is selected from the group consisting ofcerium oxide (CeO₂), lanthanum oxide (La₂O₃), yttrium oxide (Y₂O₃),gadolinium oxide (Gd₂O₃), europium oxide (Eu₂O₃), and terbium oxide(Tb₂O₃).
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the crystalline oxidecomprises a combination of rare earth oxides.
 5. The method of claim 4,wherein the combination of rare earth oxides is a binary oxide havingthe chemical formula ABO₃, wherein A is a rare earth metal atom and B isa different rare earth metal atom.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thecrystalline oxide comprises a perovskite material.
 7. The method ofclaim 6, wherein the perovskite material is selected from the groupconsisting of strontium titanate (SrTiO₃) and barium titanate (BaTiO₃).8. The method of claim 1, wherein the crystalline oxide is aluminumoxide (Al₂O₃).
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the crystalline oxideis an aluminum oxide compound.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein thealuminum oxide compound is lanthanum aluminum (LaAlO₃).
 11. Asemiconductor device comprising: a substrate; a first semiconductorstructure located on the substrate; a second semiconductor structurelocated on the substrate; and a crystalline oxide layer located betweenthe first semiconductor structure and the second semiconductorstructure, wherein a top surface of the crystalline oxide layer issubstantially planar with a top surface of the substrate, and thecrystalline oxide layer extends below the top surface of the substrate,wherein the crystalline oxide layer electrically isolates the first andthe second semiconductor structure.
 12. The device of claim 11, whereinthe crystalline oxide layer comprises rare earth oxides.
 13. The deviceof claim 12, wherein the rare earth oxide is selected from the groupconsisting of cerium oxide (Ce02), lanthanum oxide (La₂0₃), yttriumoxide (Y 203), gadolinium oxide (Gd203), europium oxide (EU203), andterbium oxide (Tb203).
 14. The device of claim 11, wherein thecrystalline oxide layer comprises a combination of rare earth oxides.15. The device of claim 14, wherein the combination of rare earth oxidesis a binary oxide having the chemical formula AB03, wherein A is a rareearth metal atom and B is a different rare earth metal atom.
 16. Thedevice of claim 11, wherein the crystalline oxide layer comprises aperovskite material.
 17. The device of claim 16, wherein the perovskitematerial is selected from the group consisting of strontium titanate(SrTi03) and barium titanate (BaTi03).
 18. The device of claim 11,wherein the crystalline oxide layer is aluminum oxide (Ah03).
 19. Thedevice of claim 11, wherein the crystalline oxide layer is an aluminumoxide compound.
 20. The device of claim 19, wherein the aluminum oxidecompound is lanthanum aluminum (LaAI03).